The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Writers Revealed
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon deliberately doesn't look like The Walking Dead. As shown by the first footage from the spin-off, "The tone is much different, the [look is] much different. The lighting's different," star Norman Reedus previously told ComicBook. "We're in castles, and the storyline has a religious vibe to it. Part of the story is me around a bunch of people speaking French." If AMC's Walking Dead spin-off set in post-apocalyptic France doesn't look or sound anything like The Walking Dead, it's because there's new blood in the writers' room assembled by executive producer and showrunner David Zabel.
The ER veteran joined the NBC series in its eighth season as an executive story writer before becoming executive producer and showrunner for seasons 11—15 of the medical drama. Zabel, whose television writing credits include episodes of JAG, Star Trek: Voyager, and Dark Angel, also developed the short-lived ABC drama Lucky 7 with Jason Richman and co-created with Lisa Q. Wolfinger the Civil War-set medical drama Mercy Street for PBS.
A listing on the Writers Guild of America database reveals the five writers who penned the six-episode first season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, including Zabel, who penned the pilot episode. The newcomers to the Walking Dead Universe are Zabel's Lucky 7 and Mercy Street collaborator Richman, ER and Lucky 7 story editor Shannon Goss, Laura Snow, and French writer Coline Abert.
- Episode 1 is written by Zabel, whose credits include the ABC affair drama Betrayal, crime-drama Detroit 1-8-7, and crime-drama Stumptown
- Episode 2 is co-written by Zabel & Richman, who created the Cobie Smulders-led Stumptown and co-created Lucky 7 with Zabel. Along with episodes of Detroit 1-8-7 and Mercy Street, Richman wrote the 2008 films Swing Vote and Bangkok Dangerous
- Episode 3 is scripted by Coline Abert, writer of the French romantic dramedy series Plus belle la vie, the French political thriller series The Bureau, and the supernatural drama Les Revenants (The Returned). Most recently, Abert penned the "Like Angels Put in Hell by God" episode of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire for AMC
- Episode 4 is written by Shannon Goss, a television veteran whose credits include episodes of ER, Harry's Law, Lucky 7, ABC drama Revenge, Reign, STARZ' Outlander, and AMC's supernatural horror anthology series The Terror
- Episode 5 is written by Zabel & Richman
- Episode 6 is penned by Richman & Laura Snow, a staff writer on NBC's short-lived drama Ordinary Joe, which chronicled one man's three parallel lives
The official logline: "Daryl washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan."
Former Walking Dead showrunners and executive producers Scott M. Gimple and Angela Kang developed the series, originally planned as the Daryl & Carol spin-off starring Reedus and Melissa McBride. After Kang and McBride both exited the spin-off in April 2022, it was reworked to focus on Daryl being marooned in Europe. (McBride has since been spotted filming with Reedus in France.)
Gimple and Kang serve as executive producers on Daryl Dixon, alongside Zabel, longtime Walking Dead director-producer-makeup artist Greg Nicotero, Brian Bockrath (Fear the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Dead City), and Daniel Percival (The Man in the High Castle, Hot Zone).
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is slated to premiere this fall on AMC and AMC+.
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